Smart highway and smart road are terms for a number of different ways technologies are incorporated into roads, for improving the operation of connected and autonomous vehicles, for traffic lights and street lighting, and for monitoring the condition of the road, traffic levels and the speed of vehicles.
Intelligent transportation systems usually refers to the use of information and communication technologies in the field of road transport, including infrastructure, vehicles and users, and in traffic management and mobility management, as well as for interfaces with other modes of transport.
The principal idea of solar road panels is to utilise the space occupied by roads to generate electricity via photo-voltaic panels installed in place of a conventional concrete or asphalt road surface. Other functions for solar road panels have been proposed, including the following:
The panels could include LED lights for creating dynamic road markings, e.g., lane markings, or warning messages such as “Reduce Speed”.
The panels could include heating elements that produce sufficient energy to clear ice and snow from roadways.
The panels could include wireless charging technology to recharge the batteries of electric vehicles that drive over the panels.
Criticism
Slate magazine stated that solar roadways would produce less electricity than solar cells that are placed at an angle, and that less light would touch them because of shade, dirt covering the road, and cars blocking the sun from touching the panels. Critics have pointed out that solar roadways would be both more expensive, and less productive than more conventional ways of combining solar power with infrastructure, such as building shelters over roads and parking areas and putting traditional solar panels on the roofs; Elon Musk demonstrated that there is ample space in the US, apart from roads, to fulfill the power requirements of the country.
Failure
An experimental 1-kilometre road in France called Wattway, the longest solar road in the world, inaugurated in December 2016 by Segolene Royal, Minister of the Environment, fell apart by August 2018. Described as a fiasco by Le Monde, it produced half of the electricity expected, created bothersome noises from traffic, and deteriorated substantially over two years.
Roadway-powered electric vehicle system is the patent held by Howard R. Ross. It has several components. The first of which is an all electric vehicle that would be fit with electromechanical batteries that accept a charge from the road. The road is the second component and would have strategically placed charging coils as to only charge the car when needed. These cars and roads would not require gas or solar power. Nowhere in the world is an invention like this currently implemented, and this is due to the cost of the infrastructure overhaul that would be needed to bring this patent into reality.
Road markings
The Smart Highway concept developed by Studio Roosegaarde and the infrastructure management group Heijmans in the Netherlands incorporated photo-luminescent paint for road markings, which absorb light during the day then glow for up to 10 hours. In April 2014, a pilot stretch of highway in Brabant, Netherlands was officially opened, demonstrating the technology. After two weeks, the paint had stopped glowing due to moisture.
Frost protection and melting snow, ice
s using electricity or hot water to heat roads and pavements have been installed in various locations. Solar Roadways has proposed including a snowmelt system with their photovoltaic road panels since the panels already have electrical power connections for harvesting photovoltaic power. Critics point to the very large energy requirements of such a system. ICAX Limited of London's "Interseasonal Heat Capture" technology captures solar energy in thermal banks and releases it back under a roadway, heating it and keeping asphalt free of ice.
